{{define "title"}}Privacy Policy{{end}} {{define "content"}}

Privacy Policy

This page describes the treatment of your data and privacy-related aspects of this website.

We reserve the right to update this page in the future. Here at {{PrettyTitle}} we are committed to respecting user privacy and are morally opposed to all of the shady tracking and selling of user data that goes on with other websites. We will not sell your information (including your e-mail address) and any kind of analytics software that may be added in the future will be "self-hosted" with your data never leaving our servers.

This page was last updated on April 29, 2024.

Any use of the word "we" on this page refers to the royal we; as this website is actually run by just one very passionate software engineer.

Website Privacy Features

Members of this website have the following features available in their settings to control their privacy from other members of the site:

Site-Wide Photo Gallery

One of the features of the website is the "Site Gallery" which features public photos of all members who have opted those photos to appear in the Gallery.

When you are uploading or editing a photo, there is a checkbox labeled "Gallery" where you can opt your photo in (or out) of the Site Gallery. Only your public photos will appear on the Site Gallery by default; your friends-only photos may appear there for people you approved as a friend, or your private photos to people for whom you have granted access. You are also able to exclude a photo from the Site Gallery by unchecking the "Gallery" box on that photo -- then it will only be viewable on your own profile page, given its other permissions (friends/private).

Deletion of User Data

When you delete your data (including photos) from this website, it will really be deleted. This website is currently run as a "passion project" on the owner's own budget and web hosting costs can get expensive when a website grows popular! So your deleted photos are actually removed from the server hard drive. You can verify this for yourself by right-clicking and "Open image in a new tab" in your browser, delete it, and refresh the other tab and see that the image URL no longer exists!

Members are free to delete their accounts and your data will be scrubbed from the server: your photos deleted and all database records about your account (including your profile data, direct messages, forum posts, comments, and so on) are removed. This is for full compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.

Moderators

To help enforce community standards, website administrators are able to access ANY user photo. Specifically, this will include the following photos:

The contents of your Direct Messages are NOT regularly reviewed by site administrators. Your privacy is respected in one-on-one chats with others. However, if a user reports your message for violating the Terms of Use the messages may be reviewed by an administrator to verify the report and take action as needed.

Third Parties

Added: Oct 24 2023

{{PrettyTitle}} does not share data with ANY third party company. The website and chat room (both custom applications built specifically for {{PrettyTitle}}) run on a single web server. There are NO third-party analytics, advertisements, or any data sharing agreement with any third-party company -- all user data is stored in-house on the {{PrettyTitle}} web server.

The features on {{PrettyTitle}} are designed in a privacy-first manner in order to avoid relying on any third-party services. For example:

Data Collection and Use

Added: Oct 24 2023

This section will enumerate all of the kinds of data that {{PrettyTitle}} collects and stores about user accounts and how it is used.

Required Account Information

The following information is the bare minimum required for all {{PrettyTitle}} user accounts, why we require it and how it is used.

Optional Profile Information

The following information is all optional for members to fill in, and may be displayed on your profile page or allow members to search for you by these fields (for example, the Member Directory allows to browse members by gender, relationship status, age range, or sexual orientation).

Other User Information

This section covers other information that the website may store in relation to your user account.

Device Information

This section covers how we use information about your device, such as your IP address.

Direct Messages

Please behave honorably in your use of Direct Messages, whether on the main website or inside the chat room. The global website rules apply. {{PrettyTitle}} admins do NOT regularly review the contents of your Direct Messages (your right to privacy is respected), however if your conversation partner reports your message to the moderators we MAY look at your message history to verify the report and take action if needed.

Especially important: do not break the law as it pertains to the United States or California, where the web server resides, with your conduct in direct messages. Please do not put the entire website at risk. Your photo WILL be included in the report to law enforcement if it comes down to that.

We deploy software algorithms on the main website and chat room which will automatically scan the contents of Direct Messages and collect URL links to websites shared or flag messages based on keywords to detect egregious violations of the website's Terms of Service.

DMs on the Website

Direct Messages on the main website are stored, not encrypted, in the database and it is within the technical capabilities of site admins to review them if needed. We have safeguards in place to deter admins from snooping without being detected: it triggers an e-mail alert to other admins and the access is logged. Do NOT expect any guarantee of security or privacy in your Direct Message conversations.

Website DMs allow plain text messages only. Picture sharing is NOT supported in DMs for (what should be) very obvious reasons. We do not want users to store images on our web server that would be out of view of site admins' ability to moderate the website. See Moderators for a description of what website admins can access in the aim of ensuring the integrity of the platform and help protect the site from legal risks created by our members.

Do NOT share URL links to websites which harbor or facilitate illegal content or activity.

DMs on the Chat Room

Updated: Apr 29 2024

Direct Messages on the chat room are stored for user convenience. They are available so that you may be able to remember your recent conversation with somebody when you see them online again in the future.

Your Direct Message history on the chat room can be deleted at any time by clicking on the "Clear direct message history" button in the Chat Settings (on the Misc tab). Your chat DMs are also fully deleted if you change your username on the main website, or fully delete your {{PrettyTitle}} account, in order to protect your privacy in case your former username becomes registered to somebody else in the future. Old DMs are routinely erased after the message is 90 days old.

You are also able to delete, or "take back" specific messages you had sent to somebody before, even if they are not currently online. This will remove the message from the server database and won't show in the message history for your chat partner. If they were presently online at the time, and your message was visible on their page, the "take back" action will remove it from their page immediately.

When you erase your DM history, it will erase your history from your previous chat partners' side as well. The next time they open a chat with you, the history will be empty as though it is the very first time they are chatting with you.

DMs are NOT monitored by admins on the chat room: the software is not programmed to reveal them on the front-end web page to moderators. However, they CAN be accessed in case a conversation is reported for violating the site rules or discussing illegal content.

Messages in general on the chat server are NOT end-to-end encrypted -- they are protected only by standard website (https) encryption but the chat server sees them, momentarily as it may be, in plain text.

Messages sent to your chat partner may be cached on their web browser page until they close the window or refresh the chat. You may "take back" individual messages by clicking on the red icon which will remove it from everyone else's screen who saw that message. Closing the DM thread only removes the thread from your view, but does not remove the thread from your partner's view. This is communicated in a pop-up before you delete the DM thread.

Email Addresses

All members begin signup by verifying control of an e-mail inbox. On this website, your e-mail address is used for the following purposes:

We will NOT sell your e-mail address or send you any spam or junk mail and will NEVER do so in the future.

What kinds of e-mail messages we send

Currently the website only sends transactional e-mails (not marketing emails!) in response to important actions on the website, including (exhaustively):

In the future, the website MAY gain a feature to deliver a "daily digest" e-mail if you have any pending friend requests or unread Direct Messages on this site. There will be controls on your Settings page to control such a feature.

Cookies

This website uses functional cookies only and does not run any advertisements or third-party trackers. The exhaustive list of website cookies and their use cases are as follows:

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